Professor Young graduated from the medical school at the University of Manitoba in 1983. He completed his postgraduate training in psychiatry in 1987, and then his PhD at the Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto in 1995 and was a research fellow at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He has been Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences at McMaster University; Professor and Head, Department of Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia; and Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto.

He was also Physician-in-Chief, Executive Vice President Programs at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto.